Resources companies must prepare like Olympians to stay ahead in a changing sector, says BHP executive Geraldine Slattery
Adrian Rauso
BHP — like its key iron ore rival Rio Tinto — is being weighed down by grade control issues in the Pilbara, an analyst says.
Adrian Rauso and Daniel Newell
Newly listed Metals Acquisition is raising $140 million to pay down debts it loaded up on to buy a copper mine from Glencore in New South Wales.
Simone Grogan
Copper rallied back above $US10,000 a tonne and iron ore broke through $US100/t after China’s top leaders stepped up efforts to revive economic growth for the world’s largest metals consumer.
Annie Lee
Rio Tinto chairman Dominic Barton has declared the world needs more mines to cope with rising demand for key energy-transition metals like copper, with mergers and acquisitions unable to plug a supply gap.
Even for BHP — a $206 billion company — large, greenfield projects are scarce, and becoming more so. Deals, not discoveries, are grabbing the headlines.
Paul-Alain Hunt
Copper climbed to its highest level since mid-July as metals rallied on the Federal Reserve’s bid to defend US growth and the labor market with a half-point rate-cut.
Bloomberg
BHP is moving ahead with a major expansion of the Olympic Dam copper smelter and refinery in South Australia, with permit applications now before the state government.
Harry Brumpton
An ongoing union incursion into BHP’s powerhouse Pilbara iron ore operations might stop a multi-billion-dollar expansion from going ahead, warns the company’s chief Mike Henry.
Southern Africa’s railways are suddenly getting global attention and attracting billions of dollars in investment, with a race to secure copper supplies needed for the energy transition at its centre.
Matthew Hill
BHP and union leaders in Chile reached a preliminary wage agreement on Friday at the world’s biggest copper mine, causing the commodity’s price to fall.
James Attwood
Workers at BHP Group’s Escondida mine in Chile began a strike Tuesday after failing to reach a wage agreement with management, setting the stage for a major disruption at the world’s biggest copper operation.
After teasing the immense potential of a copper discovery in WA’s north for years Rio Tinto is now sticking this once-hyped project, or at least a piece of it, in the shopfront window.
IGO’s leader, Ivan Vella, says a more efficient supply chain in China has helped their lithium refiners avoid the same technical problems that have plagued Western Australia’s producers.
Rio Tinto chief executive Jakob Stausholm has poured cold water on fears the $9.5b ‘Pilbara Killer’ Simandou mine will do as its unofficial nickname suggests.
Simone Grogan and Daniel Newell
BHP has moved on from rejection by Anglo American and found another way to get its hands on more South American copper.
A trawl for two metals of contrasting popularity across a landholding nearly 700 times the size of Rottnest Island has come up dry.
First Quantum Minerals reached an agreement with Jiangxi Copper, its second-largest shareholder, that limits the Chinese firm’s ownership of the Canadian copper producer.
There are tens of trillions of dollars worth of mineral wealth yet to be unlocked in Australia, according to a new global report.
BHP has capped off the year with record iron ore production and strong output from other commodities across its global resources portfolio, including its higher copper production result in 15 years.
Daniel Newell and Adrian Rauso
The heat is being dialled up on Chalice Mining as short sellers latch onto investor disappointment at the progress being made to bring a huge green metals mine in Toodyay to life.
Fiona Hick has joined the board of Evolution Mining, marking her first public role since leaving Fortescue following a short and dramatic tenure as its chief executive.
Copper is coming down from a bull run with the dollar strengthening and prices facing sustained pressure from weak Chinese demand.
Bloomberg News
Manganese, an essential steel-making ingredient, has outstripped copper and gold this year after a cyclone halted exports from the world’s second-largest mine in March.
